Hybrid social communication intervention for children with ASD: sibling mediation and video modeling

City:

Portland

State/Province:

OR

State/Province Full:

Oregon

Country:

United States

Social and communicative competence is central to success in school, and fundamental to development of peer relationships. As social communication deficits are well documented in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), improving these skills is often a key focus of intervention, particularly in speech-language pathology (SLP). Two social communication intervention methods that have been found effective in recent years include training peers to use strategies to facilitate the social communication of children with ASD (peer-mediated intervention) and use of video modeling (VM) to directly teach social communication skills to the child with ASD. However, generalization of skills to home and community has been inconsistent. In addition, although children with ASD frequently receive SLP services, many SLPs report limited direct training in serving this population. To address these issues, the current study will investigate the feasibility of combining these two methods in a unique manner and implementing the intervention within a SLP graduate training program. This “hybrid” intervention will include “peer”-mediated intervention practices (sibling of the child with ASD serves as the peer), in conjunction with direct teaching of the child with ASD (VM intervention). The primary aims of the study are to investigate the feasibility of the program, examine the satisfaction of the intervention for families, determine the reproducibility of intervention implementation by siblings (as well as SLP student clinicians), and examine possible effects of the intervention on the social interactions between the sibling and child with ASD. Given the importance of social communication skills, results of this study may impact not only the everyday lives of children with ASD, but also the clinical practices of SLPs providing services. Results will also be used to support investigation of hybrid social communication intervention on a larger scale.